Daily Bulletin

Monday, December 1, 1997

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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What do you think will happen?

I hereby predict that there will be coffee and munchies in the Davis Centre tomorrow from 9:30 to 11. This prediction is based on my well-known perspicacity, and also on the presence of some hundreds of flyers and posters across campus, announcing "a campus-wide coffee break" at that time and place, to mark the end of UW's 40th anniversary year.

My ability to foretell the future may be tested a little more severely at tomorrow's event, though, because the idea is not just to scarf up the refreshments, but to contribute to an "electronic time capsule" with predictions and wishes for UW between now and the 50th anniversary in the year 2007. Predictions can be submitted through a form on the Web, either tomorrow in Davis, or from the comfort of your own keyboard, any time up to December 9. Then the predictions will be sealed in silicon for the duration of the fifth decade.

A few campus celebrities have been asked to make their predictions in advance, to set a good example, says Heather White of the president's office, one of the volunteers helping to organize tomorrow's event. She says most of those invited to contribute have been on the shy side -- "at least one was even superstitious about predictions!"

However, she did get Mike Sharratt, dean of applied health sciences, to offer this intriguing forecast of academic achievements by 2007:

An innovative coalition of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Public Health Unit and Grand River Hospital will host the first Canadian Behavioural Teaching Hospital.

And Gary Waller, associate provost (academic and student affairs), prophesies that

The Warriors will be nationally ranked in three sports. . . . There will be a two-week study break in all three terms and all faculties will adhere to the same calendar. . . . Implementation of new information systems will be proceeding on a schedule.

She's even got these words from Simon the Troll:

High-tech classroom space with high-resolution digital interactive terabyte-speed video on demand will be built atop the Engineering Lecture Hall. The new edifice will be dedicated as the Douglas Wright Centre for Interactive Learning. Quite apart from honouring a former dean and president, the name will provide a snappy answer when somebody asks, "What are the politics of most students at Waterloo?" "Wright Centre."

So, what do you foresee? Tomorrow at Davis, you'll want to share it.

Senate hears about scholarships

The executive committee of the UW senate is meeting this afternoon -- 3:30, Needles Hall room 3004. I don't see anything controversial on the agenda (although you never know, you know) and the committee could well decide, as it has the right to do, that it'll cancel the scheduled December 15 meeting of the full senate, and deal with the outstanding business itself on senate's behalf.

The most sizeable item in the printed agenda is a report from the scholarships and student aid committee, which includes a summary of first-year scholarships and bursaries handed out this fall. There were a total of 345 scholarships accepted, the report says, although as many as 422 could have been available. They range from $1,000 one-time handshakes to four-year awards such as the Graham, Tutte, Fryer and Stanton scholarships in mathematics (a total of $16,000 over an undergraduate career).

As for bursaries -- which reflect financial need, rather than academic merit -- the report says 1,050 were distributed, meaning that slightly more than one-quarter of the 3,943 first-year students received some money in that form.

New at the desk of the chair

Next dean: Sujeet Chaudhuri

Jon Mark takes over today as acting chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering -- a position in which he's previously served for a full term. The department is in need of an acting chair because Sujeet Chaudhuri is leaving office early to get ready for a still bigger challenge: becoming dean of engineering next summer.

Chaudhuri, who lists his research interests as including "Active/Passive Guided Wave Optics, Optical Communication Sub-Systems, Microwave/Millimeter Wave Planar Circuits, Optical And Em Imaging", will be on campus for the next few weeks, tidying up some academic matters; then he's off for a six-month leave at New Zealand's University of Canterbury, returning to succeed David Burns in the dean's office on July 1.

Courses that offer no credit

The continuing education office has its winter term course brochure out for our edification, and here are some of the courses being offered for the first time:

"Celtic Spirituality": "through the use of poetry, monastic literature, music and art, learn how the Celtic peoples maintained a passionate religious vision which, though ancient, is always new and appealing to us today."
"Creative Writing Workshop for Teens, 15-18".
"Family Patterns: The Relationship Dance", to be taught by John Theis, who recently retired from St. Jerome's College.
"Project Management Tools and Techniques".
"Press Kits with Pizzazz: Creating Tools to Grab Media Attention".
"Writing Excel Macros".

And among the old favourites: "Getting Started in Writing Fiction", "Work Teams to Support Total Quality", "Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage", "Introductory Japanese for Business and Travel", "Designing Effective Newsletters", "Developing Effective Presentation Skills", "Programming Java Applications and Applets", "Planning a Local Area Network for Your Office", "Computing for Kids Ages 3-6".

The courses follow various schedules -- ten Thursday evenings, two Saturday mornings, all day on a single Tuesday. Fees can be as low as $20 or as high as $395. (There are discounts for full-time UW students, staff, faculty and retirees.)

More information is available on the continuing education office's Web pages; you can get a copy of the printed calendar by phoning ext. 4002.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY November 30, 1959: The science faculty council approves offering summer courses at Waterloo for teachers wanting to upgrade their degrees.

December 1, 1993: Student Chris Warkentin pleads guilty to the January 1 murder of graduate student David Zaharchuk in Engineering I.

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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